Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Today on Abounding Grace, a brilliant reminder of our identity in Christ.

Pastor Ed Taylor: The whole picture of the book of Exodus, the whole picture of what God’s doing, pointing to Christ, deliverance, salvation, but I want to give you two more words to consider. Are you ready for Exodus? Exodus is all about identity and authority. Identity and authority.

Pastor, what do you mean? He is speaking to slaves that have yet to be delivered except for verse 51 as armies. He’s speaking of them of what they become, not who they are. And isn’t that what the Lord does in our lives?

Larry: Greetings in Christ and a warm welcome to you. This is Abounding Grace. Today we return to Exodus, a study of God’s deliverance. But this book also points us to Christ, our salvation, identity, and authority too as we open up chapter 12, we’ll hear all about the Passover, a time when the Lord would strike down the firstborn of Egypt but would pass over those households who followed his instructions. Let’s lean in and listen to what Pastor Ed Taylor has to say now.

Pastor Ed Taylor: After the instruction to Moses, Moses then delivers the instruction, and the only thing that was left for the people was to obey by faith. Not to get an explanation, "What do you mean? Just how much blood should we put up and where should it belong? I don’t know. I’m not sure. Hey, what do you think?" Just obey the Lord. Just do what you’re told to do by the Lord. Just do it.

We don’t walk, we learn in the New Testament, we don’t walk by explanations but by faith. Sometimes God’s going to be allowing things in your life, leading you in things that even if you got the explanation, it still wouldn’t satisfy you. Because the Lord wants to be your satisfaction.

Sometimes you’re sitting in a Bible study or listening on the radio, you got your app going, you’re on a walk on the treadmill, and the Lord speaks to you and you’re not quick to obey. Or you’re not thorough in your obedience. Or you have like a dull hearing because you have leaven in your life, you have some compromise in your life. What the Lord is looking for is simple faith.

You can see behind the scenes of simple faith, there’s some complications. You can see that there’s all these plagues and that God is going to do great damage to the firstborn of this rebellious nation that’s marked and typified by a rebellious leader. The judgment is going to come. It’s the judgment of God that follows nine times God is gracious to Egypt. Nine times God is merciful to Pharaoh. Nine times.

Still the resistance. The Lord is going to pass over. I want you to do this, do it on your doors, close the door, don’t come out until morning. Wherever the blood is applied, there will be safety. Not just for the parents, but also for the kids. It’s a family affair. Unless the blood was applied, it wasn’t effective. It was not effective in the basin. It wasn’t effective in the backyard. It wasn’t effective in the lamb. It needed to be on the doorposts exactly as God instructed.

It’s to be a memorial, to be a reminder after they arrive in the Promised Land, which is yet so far ahead. I mean, it’s so far ahead. God’s going, "Do this, do this. And when you get to my promise, when you experience the fullness of what I’m promising you, I don’t want you to settle down and forget me. Don’t forget my grace in sparing your life."

The annual observance of Passover would serve as a constant reminder of the faithfulness of God. The annual celebration of the Passover would also point to the coming of Messiah, to look for him, to expect him, and to receive him, which is exactly what the Jews did not do when Jesus came.

All of this is pointing to the cross. This was a memorial not just for what God has done in the past. Has God done anything in your past? But that’s not all God wants you to bank on. It’s not only in the past but what’s to come.

If God has been faithful in the past, and he has, how much more faithful will he be in the future? He’s going to keep his word every single time. It’s not going to be one word of God that has ever been spoken that will fail. I see some of these people that are claiming to speak in the name of God that are completely false, completely wrong in their predictions. People just keep following them.

The Bible says that if there’s a person that claims to be a prophet and is wrong in just one thing, then in the Old Testament they were to stone them. But here in the New Covenant, everybody thinks they should keep following them. It’s just some wild, wild things.

I don’t want you to follow false teaching. I want you to tune your ears to hear the voice of the Lord. Don’t follow someone that says, "Oh, I’m from God, I’m from God." Yeah, but you’re not right. That’s not God. Not only are you not right, but you’re dishonest. Because what you said did not come to pass. You were really trying to be precise and you’re going to come and here I am and this is thus saith the Lord. Then after the date passes you’re like, "Thus the Lord didn’t say." You said. Because you’re wrong, I reject you as a messenger of God. I don’t receive that.

When God gives a word, it always comes to pass. Not one word will fail. All of this pointing what God’s really saying to the children of Israel looking forward is, "I will always provide a place of safety as long as you apply the blood." That’s the place of safety. There is no safety today physically or spiritually outside of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Outside of the blood of Jesus Christ, men and women will die in their sins and live a Christless eternity, which is why the church is actively seeking to share the gospel and step into your life as uncomfortable as it might be to share with you the significance of the condition of your life apart from Jesus.

We’re not following myths or fancy made-up stories. Jesus Christ, God in human flesh. He came in the form of a human being and lived a righteous life. I mean the only righteous life, the only perfection that ever existed. The reward for his life of love and care, the reward for his life of teaching and healing and helping and bringing encouragement and joy and love to a loveless world was that they lied about him and they set him up and they manipulated the government and manipulated everyone and hung him on a cross. But not before they savagely beat him like a common criminal. Beating him almost to death. By his stripes we are healed.

It is the strength of the blood of Jesus Christ. Today if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. The cross gives perspective of all the petty little things that we carry in life. The larger the cross and the view of the cross in your life, the more petty these little leavens and lumps of leaven in your life. They’re not as important as you think they are. They’re not as significant and as valuable as you think they are as they hinder you from walking in the newness of life.

This is a serious time for the nation of Israel and they were to obey. Notice verse 29. "It came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, 'Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.'"

Isn’t that interesting? Even the most hardhearted pagan man or woman appreciates prayer when they’re in a bind. It’s one of the greatest things you can do for the hardest people around you is just to ask if you can pray for them. "Is there anything I can pray for you?" Or as you’re walking away you say, "I’m going to pray for you." Not like in a nasty way, "Oh, I’m going to pray for you," but in a real caring, sincere way.

"I love you enough that I’m going to carry you on my heart when I leave. I love you enough that when I get home I’m going to tell my kids at the dinner table about you and we’re going to pray for you. Not because I think you’re less than me and not because I think you deserve the fires of hell, but because I love you and I don’t want you to experience a Christless eternity because somebody was praying for me."

You may not be able to use those words, but your face and your mannerisms and your attitude will convey all of that. "I’ll pray for you, Pharaoh." You know how close he’s been, but then he hardens. You know he’s just looking at the economy. You’ll see that later. That’s all he cares about. Cares about his name. He thinks he’s a god, little G. He thinks he’s the number one god. He doesn’t care. But when chips are down, he asks for prayer. Because pain hit his house. Pain hit his house. That’s the great equalizer, isn’t it?

Pain. Believers, we suffer. Unbelievers suffer. We had another hailstorm here while I was away. Do you know the cars out there? Believers’ cars got hit. Unbelievers’ cars got hit. We’re all going to be lying at the hail repair place where the paintless removal, whatever, we’re all going to go. We’re all going to be there together.

Except the difference is unseen most of the time. The difference between the unbeliever and the believer at the hail damage place is the believer has hope. There’s a purpose unveiled in their lives. We’re there and we know it’s just a car. Just a car. Just a dented hood. We get it fixed, great. We don’t get it fixed, great. It’s all going to burn. I’m getting ready for the marriage feast of the Lamb. It’s all going to go away. That’s the difference.

For those believers that are abiding in Christ, those believers that are walking with the Spirit, there’s another difference that’s unseen and it’s this. One cares about the other while the other may not. The Lord put that in your heart. Because you know that might be their hope, that car. It might be an insurance thing that might bring them to the brink of disaster financially. It might bring about this, "I don’t know, we can’t take one more thing in their lives."

When you walk in, you’re thinking that if you’re open to the Holy Spirit. You’re watching, you’re caring because you are the eyes of Christ in that. You are the representation of Jesus. The world is just always going to be the world. They’re always going to act like the world, sound like the world. They’re going to be Antichrist as John said in First John. But only the church can be the church.

You’re the church. So you think, "Man, I was just in line at the hail damage place and I didn’t get any of that." Try again. Go back for another estimate somewhere else. Just like, "I’m going to go in for a second estimate, not just for the money, but to be open to the Holy Spirit." To be open to the person that’s taking all that information that’s been overworked, underpaid. You care. That’s a bridge for the gospel.

So here, Pharaoh, "Hey, bless me, pray for me." Yeah, I know. Because pain will drop people’s attention to God for a brief moment. It’s the great equalizer. I can’t believe this. Why would God strike the firstborn? What kind of God would do such a thing? There’s a lot to be thought on that. I’ve done this in other studies, but I just want you to consider Egypt for right now.

Number one, they’re rebellious against God. Number two, they’re idolatrous. Number three, they’ve rejected God. Number four, they live in gross immorality. Number five, they are caught up with greed and covetousness as they’ve used slave labor for their wealth for 400 years. They’ve been enslaving and brutalizing human beings all these years and enjoying the benefits of it.

But the real question isn’t about the Egyptians. The real question lies with a question like that is after all that we have done with God, why has he spared our lives? Because we are all equally lost apart from Christ. Isn’t that what the Bible says? We have all sinned and fallen short. You look at this and go, "I’m not like an Egyptian." Well, I bet you if we got to look a little closer we might see some similarities of a life that’s lived apart from Christ.

To me, it’s just amazing that God would be so gracious to save any of us. Any one of us, of what he delivered us from. This final plague is hard, but it comes after nine chances. Nine chances. Certainly, there’s interaction between the Egyptians and the Israelis, the children of Israel seeing what they’re doing, maybe talking about it. Wherever the Lord saw the blood, wherever the Lord saw the blood, he’d pass over.

Verse 37, "The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock." I don’t think they see it right now, but the mixed multitude is like bringing leaven. The mixed multitude, the complainers, the grumblers, the those outside of the covenant, the ones that don’t care about God. They brought the mixed multitude, idolatrous, rejecting God, they left with them, but they’re going to cause a big problem to the children of Israel.

Doesn't the Bible say be careful? Evil company corrupts good habits. Be careful. Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Be careful. This mixed multitude will see in future studies stand as a warning to us. Just like people in the church today. People in the church today that they like the blessings of God, they want all the benefits of being a Christian, they desire, but they’re not really true believers.

Mixed multitude. Any gathering has a mixed multitude with it, whether it’s in the building or out online. There’s always mixed multitude. Those that are serious about the Lord, those that are not. So we don’t know the difference. We don’t know. We just know that we’re going to preach the gospel and encourage and hope the best.

We find out the mixed multitude, we find out the wolves in sheep’s clothing when we see their teeth and their fangs and we see the bloody mess that they leave behind in destroying people and drawing people after themselves. There are those among us even now, worldly, carnal, destructive.

The Lord’s just using this whole section to call you to himself. It’s impossible to be carnal as you abide in Christ. It’s impossible to walk in the flesh when you’re walking in the Spirit. It’s impossible to be selfish when you’ve died to yourself in that moment.

The mixed multitude, verse 39, "They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves. Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years." We’ll get into that in future studies too.

"And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on the very same day it came to pass that all the armies"—there’s that word again—"all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It was a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 'This is the ordinance of the Passover: No outsider shall eat it. But every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it. In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.'"

Again, a foretaste, a picture of Jesus who had no bones broken. "All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. And when a stranger sojourns with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who sojourns among you. Thus all the children of Israel did; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. And it came to pass, on that very same day, that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their"—there’s the word again—"armies."

Very, very interesting word as you see some more details given on the Passover and how it’s to be observed. I want you to see and note these words, "armies." There’s a couple of ways of looking at this. One of the definitions of this word in the Hebrew speaks of host like heavenly host, that perhaps there’s some angelic visitation abiding with the children of Israel and coming out with them. That’s one possibility.

But I see a greater possibility. This is something we’ve developed before, but I want you to understand this. Armies of the Lord. He refers, I think the reference is directly to the children of Israel. He calls them armies. Now just say it yes or no, are they armies right now? No. They’re what? Slaves. They’ve been slaves for generations.

Before they plundered the Egyptians, they had nothing. The whole reason that this movement happens now is God heard their cries as they were making it worse and harder for them to work. They’re not armies. But three times, the word of the Lord to this nation was you armies, you armies, you armies. I want you to meditate on this.

I want you to consider the whole picture of the book of Exodus. The whole picture of what God’s doing, pointing to Christ, deliverance, salvation. But I want to give you two more words to consider. Exodus is all about identity and authority. Identity and authority. He is speaking to slaves that have yet to be delivered except for verse 51 as armies. He’s speaking of them of what they become, not who they are.

Isn’t that what the Lord does in our lives? He doesn't remember us as Rahab the harlot. No, no. Uh-uh. She’s not the harlot anymore. She’s saved and redeemed. When you get to heaven, don’t go around, "Where’s Rahab the harlot?" And some angel comes back with their wing, bam. "What’s that for, bro?" Like, there’s no harlots in heaven. There are no harlots in heaven.

When God saves you from that lifestyle, you’re not a harlot anymore. You’re a sister in the Lord. You’re a brother in the Lord. You have a new identity. The devil attacks this so much because he knows once you know who you are, there’s no stopping you. Once you understand who Christ is in your life, there’s no stopping you. You will go anywhere, you will do anything, you will take these leaps of faith trusting God, putting your whole life on the line because you believe who you are in Christ. That’s why Jesus always calls us back, "Would you guys just go back to your new believer days, please? Because that’s when you were on fire."

Larry: You’re listening to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. If you joined us late or would like to hear this message from Exodus again, turn to aboundinggraceradio.com or you can listen through our app as well. Search for Ed Taylor in the App Store or Google Play.

So, Pastor Ed, as you close things out today, you reminded us of our identity in Christ. What would you say to that person listening right now that’s having trouble seeing themselves as God sees them? Perhaps they’re living in shame and guilt over past sins or failures.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Yeah, Larry, this is a very big issue. I think it’s one of the issues of the day in these last days moving forward is dealing with our past. I know you didn’t ask this, but I just came out with a brand-new book called "Letting Go of Your Past." We deal with things like guilt, shame, unforgiveness, anger, spiritual warfare, and our identity in Christ.

But what would I say to the person listening right now? I would say believe God in what he says about you. Take the lie that you’ve been holding onto. For example, this whole issue of shame. When we fall into shame, we begin to beat ourselves up in condemnation instead of seeing the situation in the way it is: I made a mistake. Instead, we conclude that I am the mistake, and that becomes your identity.

Look, the Lord has freedom for you. Whether you want to pick up the book "Letting Go of Your Past" or you just choose today that one area that’s been holding you back to trust in the Lord, I know God will honor it. And if you email me, if you contact me, I can send you a list of a few things the Bible says about who you are, your identity in Christ. Send that out, no problem. All you have to do is email me and I’ll respond to that email with what you request. It’ll be a blessing to serve you that way.

Larry: Very encouraging. Thanks again, Pastor Ed. Well, each month we like to suggest a book that will encourage you in the Lord, and this month it’s "Just Do Something" by Kevin DeYoung. Maybe you’ve been on a search to find God’s will and you’re stuck or frustrated, waiting for clear and unmistakable direction. In this helpful book, you’ll learn that God doesn’t need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He’s already revealed his plan for our lives: to love him, obey his word, and after that, to do what we like.

He says no need for hocus pocus, no reason to be directionally challenged. Just do something. We’ll send you a copy with our thanks for a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Please remember, it is through your support that we’re able to present this radio program on stations all across the nation. Thank you for standing with us. Call 877-30-GRACE and we can help you with the ordering details. Or go to our online store at calvaryco.store. We’ll return to Exodus next time on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. We’ll see you then.

Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.